Eye to Eye
by The Mocking J
Summary: "Why didn't you tell me we had a pool… back when I missed Earth?"


**[[Spoilers:** For Season 2, Episodes 1 – 5.

 **Set:** After _Eye of the Storm._ **]]**

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 **Eye to Eye**

Having nearly been burnt to a crisp by the wormholer's beam, Lance believed he'd earned a dip in the pool. Even if it meant sharing with Keith _,_ he was going to have a relaxing swim and rinse his body of Coran's slippery slime. (Ew… That sounded _so_ wrong.)

He entered the elevator, towel around his neck, and waited. A few ticks passed. Lance glanced to the left and to the right. There was no sign of a certain mullet. Just to be sure, Lance let out an obnoxiously loud yawn. He was almost disappointed when he didn't receive a sigh in response. Almost.

The elevator doors hissed shut. Lance was alone. What did he care? Maybe Keith was brooding in his room. Lance hadn't seen any of the others on his way down, so he'd assumed they were all resting. In Hunk's case, 'resting' meant baking replacement cookies. Pidge was probably the only one who'd fallen asleep somewhere... Shiro and Allura didn't know the definition of 'sleep'.

Was he forgetting anyone? Did space mice need to sleep?

Much to Lance's relief, the elevator reached the pool deck without breaking down this time. _Finally!_ Lance breathed in that clean air. It kind of smelled like chlorine, but it had a minty aftertaste...

Lance gazed up at the pool – on the ceiling. How could Altean tech be so advanced and yet so _insane?_ Hunk or Pidge could figure it out, but he didn't want to drag them down here. There had to be some way for him to get in the water and _stay_ in the water… or whatever the Altean equivalent for water was –

A ginger-haired figure shot out of the pool, doing a backflip. Lance yelped as he was drenched.

 _"_ _C-CORAN?"_ he spluttered.

Coran's head popped out of the water. His hair and moustache were dripping as he peered down at Lance. "Yes?"

"What are you _doing?_ " Lance demanded. "You're supposed to be sick – _aw, man!"_

"Yes, I am a gorgeous man!" Coran confirmed.

Lance stabbed an accusing finger at him. "You… you've _contaminated the pool! With your sick slime!"_

"You mean the Slipperies?" Coran started to swim a smooth backstroke. Thank the stars, he was wearing a blue full body wetsuit. "As a matter of fact, I'm feeling much better now."

"Yeah, maybe because your slime's been absorbed by the water!"

"This isn't _water – "_

"It doesn't matter!" He threw his towel on the floor. "I just wanted to go for a swim!"

"Calm your quiznak," Coran huffed, splashing him again. "If it puts your mind at ease, I'll drain the pool. You might want to step back…"

He swam to the edge of the pool and pressed a switch. Lance watched as a column of water transferred Coran to the floor.

"Antigravity mechanism," the Altean explained. Lance tapped his foot. Sighing, Coran flicked another switch on one of the pillars supporting the pool. A silver cover glided across the pool's surface and there was a gurgling noise. When the cover slid open, the water was so clear that Lance could see his reflection frowning down at him.

"There you are – good as new!" Coran declared. Lance stayed silent. Coran's moustache twitched. "Honestly, you don't need to fuss about it. I doubt your species can even contract the Slipperies virus."

Lance murmured, "Why didn't you tell me we had a pool?"

"Pardon?"

"You know... before the Galra invaded the castle… back when I really missed Earth."

He _still_ missed Earth. He always did. But things had gotten better lately. His mind had been occupied with freeing enslaved planets, escaping the Galra, working as a team.

So what if the Pizza Shack was a million light years away? It had felt like that at the garrison too. (And Hunk's cooking was a hundred times better than the garrison's gruel.) Sure, he couldn't jump in the waves at Veradera Beach, but he'd landed on an underwater world a few days ago. Then there were clouds and grass and trees on Alkaria – it was amazing!

The castle had become his home away from home. Blue had sort of become his second mom, keeping him out of trouble. Team Voltron had become his alternate-moody-geeky-bossy-alien family.

Families didn't keep secrets from each other.

Coran hummed. "I'm afraid I still don't understand. How could a pool remind you of your home planet?"

"Never mind. Forget I said anything." He trudged back to the elevator, but Coran grabbed his shoulder, turning him round.

"Please forgive my ignorance from before, but I think I see it now! It doesn't matter that the pool isn't filled with water!"

Lance blinked as he was dragged over to the pillar. "What?"

"It doesn't matter," Coran repeated, "because you can _still swim,_ wherever the ship takes us!" He hit the pillar's switch.

Lance was caught in the column of water... or not-water. (Whatever it was called.) He wriggled his fingers and his toes; it was warm and soothing, like taking a bath.

A stream of bubbles escaped from his mouth as he was beamed up to the pool. He burst to the pool's surface, but it didn't feel as if he was hanging upside down. Antigravity had some perks after all.

He flashed Coran a grin and dived back in, doing several lengths of the pool; breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle, mermaid, _butterfly!_ With the view of the room below, it really felt like he was flying.

Eventually, he surfaced again to see Coran heading to the elevator. "Hey, Coran! Where you going?"

"I presumed you would rather swim alone – "

"Come on in! The pool's great!"

Coran smiled. "I'll be right with you!"

Lance glanced up at the hatch he and Keith had fallen through to escape the elevator. "Do you think we could set a water slide up in here?"

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 **[[** So far, the fifth episode of both seasons has been my favorite. I couldn't resist making a callback to _The Fall of the Castle of Lions_. **]]**


End file.
